Counterfeit designer goods have gotten good enough that price alone is no longer a reliable signal - a fake sold at a near-real price is far more convincing than the obviously cheap knockoffs from a decade ago.
The brand's own site or an officially listed authorized retailer is the only channel with zero authentication risk. Third-party marketplaces vary enormously in reliability, even when individual listings look legitimate.
Stitching consistency, hardware weight, and material texture are much harder to fake convincingly than a logo or overall shape. Comparing detailed photos against the brand's own official product images catches most fakes.
A listing pushing "almost sold out" messaging or an unusually steep discount on a normally stable-priced item is a common counterfeit pattern - real authorized retailers rarely need to manufacture urgency this way.